Latest / Dr Justin Coulson's Happy Families / #1005 - 2 Books on Neurodivergence That You Must Read

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#1005 - 2 Books on Neurodivergence That You Must Read · Dr Justin Coulson's Happy Families

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  Speaker 1: It's the Happy Families podcast. It's the podcast for the.
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  Speaker 2: Time poor parent who just once answers Now. One of
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  Speaker 2: the coolest things about having my own podcasts is that
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  Speaker 2: when I read a book that I really like, I
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  Speaker 2: can reach out to the author of that book, and
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  Speaker 2: more often than not, I mean not every time, but
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  Speaker 2: more often than not, they say, Hey, so glad you
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  Speaker 2: like the book.
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  Speaker 1: Let's chat.
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  Speaker 2: And so today I'm talking with two authors, both who
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  Speaker 2: have written books about raising neurodivergy kids, and both books
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  Speaker 2: just really spoke to me. They sang to my soul.
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  Speaker 2: The first book that we're going to talk about is
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  Speaker 2: called Square Me Round World. Square Me Round World, obviously
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  Speaker 2: riffing off the idea that there's square pegs and round
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  Speaker 2: of holes. The author of the book is Chelsea Luca. Chelsea,
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  Speaker 2: thank you so much for well for joining me on
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  Speaker 2: the podcast, but for writing this fantastic book. Tell me
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  Speaker 2: about the book for people who who have not idy
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  Speaker 2: what Square Me Around World is really about. What's the deal?
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  Speaker 1: Thank you so much for having on your show. It's
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  Speaker 1: just an absolute joy. I could talk about my book
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  Speaker 1: all day. So Square Me Around World came about, you know,
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  Speaker 1: rather impulsively, as sometimes the best ideas do. When I
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  Speaker 1: wrote a short story for one of my children in
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  Speaker 1: relation to neurodivigent friendships and how they can look really
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  Speaker 1: different to what we see as this, you know, stereotypical friendships,
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  Speaker 1: and it very quickly escalated to seven short stories, all
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  Speaker 1: of which were actually written on the note application of
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  Speaker 1: my mobile phone, mostly at midnight, And so I shared
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  Speaker 1: those stories with a few friends and they were all saying,
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  Speaker 1: you know, oh, these are so amazing. These give some
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  Speaker 1: really beautiful insights into, you know, what life is like
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  Speaker 1: for people when they, you know, live in a world
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  Speaker 1: that doesn't really feel like it fits them very well.
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  Speaker 1: So I had a few people encouraging me to publish it,
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  Speaker 1: and I and then impossibly decided, of course that was
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  Speaker 1: going to publish it, and it was going to be
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  Speaker 1: a fantastic book and got all these amazing people on board,
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  Speaker 1: like the beautiful illustrator Eliza Frica absolutely made the book
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  Speaker 1: as well. Her illustrations are perfection. And so what came
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  Speaker 1: out of it was a collection of short stories which
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  Speaker 1: kind of describe a bunch of different elements of what
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  Speaker 1: life can feel like when you're somebody that is growing
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  Speaker 1: up in a world that doesn't feel like it was
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  Speaker 1: essentially made for you.
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  Speaker 2: I remember reading that friendship story and just the way
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  Speaker 2: the kids either got each other or didn't get each other.
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  Speaker 2: I love the story about Rosie putting on her mask
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  Speaker 2: every day she goes to school and then coming home
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  Speaker 2: and taking it off, but then not being able to.
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  Speaker 2: Every time I read a story, I kind of got
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  Speaker 2: those you know when you get goosebumps on your arms,
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  Speaker 2: you sort of get those chills because you just know
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  Speaker 2: that this resonates. There are people who are going through
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  Speaker 2: this every single day. It touched every part of I think,
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  Speaker 2: what's important? What's your back around Chelsea? You've you've mentioned
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  Speaker 2: you've got kids. Tell me a bit more about that.
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  Speaker 1: I'm a late identified autistic ADHD, a psychologist. I have
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  Speaker 1: two neurodivergent children, and I also have supported auto stick
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  Speaker 1: and ADHDER clients in my private practice, you know, for
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  Speaker 1: coming up I think almost close to ten years now.
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  Speaker 1: So I kind of say I've got the trifector in
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  Speaker 1: terms of having a bunch of different insights into autostick
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  Speaker 1: an ADHD life, and so I think that that's really,
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  Speaker 1: you know, made it possible for me to be able
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  Speaker 1: to provide a bunch of different insights into different experiences,
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  Speaker 1: you know, because obviously every autistic person is not the same,
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  Speaker 1: every h ADHD is not the same. People's experiences are
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  Speaker 1: so diverse. So you know, I really tried to draw
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  Speaker 1: on my own personal experience, and you know what I
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  Speaker 1: really would have liked to have read when I was,
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  Speaker 1: you know, little me and not really going, I don't
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  Speaker 1: know how this whole world thing works. It's a bit strange.
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  Speaker 1: And then you know, obviously some of these concepts I've
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  Speaker 1: been explaining to my children along the way, and then
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  Speaker 1: you know, the clients I work with every day just
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  Speaker 1: all feeling so alone in their experiences that are really
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  Speaker 1: shared experiences, and I really just wanted to promote, you know,
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  Speaker 1: that real connection that people have without knowing they have
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  Speaker 1: that connection.
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  Speaker 2: Chelsea, You've done it beautifully. The book is called Squamy
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  Speaker 2: Round World, Stories of Growing Up in a World Not
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  Speaker 2: Built for You. Thank you so much for sharing your
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  Speaker 2: time and sharing the story of how this book came
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  Speaker 2: to be on the Happy Families.
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  Speaker 1: Podcast, thank you so much for having me up.
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  Speaker 2: Next, we talk to another author of another fantastic book
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  Speaker 2: for neurovigent kids. It's called Wonderfully Why It. Stacy Lucas
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  Speaker 2: is the author of another book for neurodivigent people or
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  Speaker 2: about neurodvigent people. It's called Wonderfully Why, One hundred inspiring
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  Speaker 2: stories of neurodivergent people who changed the world. Stacy tell
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  Speaker 2: us about the book.
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  Speaker 3: Okay, so the book contains a hundred stories about new
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  Speaker 3: divergent individuals who includes ADHD autism. It also has trouettes
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  Speaker 3: and dyslexia, and they're just inspiring stories about things that
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  Speaker 3: have achieved in their lives despite maybe having challenges as well,
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  Speaker 3: particularly when they were younger, a growing up.
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  Speaker 2: Okay, So a book that's really looking at people who
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  Speaker 2: are neurodivergent and telling their stories. I got the sense
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  Speaker 2: that it was kind of like those And I don't
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  Speaker 2: know if this inspired or not. Tell me if I'm wrong,
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  Speaker 2: but those books, I can't remember what they call, like
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  Speaker 2: rebel girls and there's this is that kind of thing.
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  Speaker 3: That was my inspiration because I was coming with those books.
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  Speaker 3: But I noticed that I really didn't complain many nerdivert
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  Speaker 3: nicol and so that was my idea was behind it.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, Okay, so I can imagine that a lot of
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  Speaker 2: people who are raising kids with ADHD, kids that have
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  Speaker 2: level one, level two, even level three autism, or kids
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  Speaker 2: who have any kind of neurological or psychological challenges or
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  Speaker 2: additional needs would look at this and say, I kind
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  Speaker 2: of like the idea of this. But who was a
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  Speaker 2: big surprise to you? Who did you? Who would you
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  Speaker 2: never have even thought was neurodivergent until you did the
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  Speaker 2: research and started to write the book.
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  Speaker 3: Oh, there's so many, Like Richard bransaid, has one had
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  Speaker 3: no idea.
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  Speaker 2: He's successful, He's done okay, hasn't he? I mean, the
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  Speaker 2: ADHD hasn't stopped him.
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  Speaker 3: It's unbelievable. He's dyslexi. So he's got two things and
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  Speaker 3: he's achieved extraordinary things. And it was around the time
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  Speaker 3: that the Musk came out and announced that he had autism,
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  Speaker 3: and that was surprising, Like, these are huge names that
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  Speaker 3: achieved extraordinary themes. And yeah, they had a neurot divergence.
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  Speaker 3: And also with that when they were young, some really
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  Speaker 3: big challenges, particularly at school. I mean Richard branch was
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  Speaker 3: told that he was hopeless. It's school and he was
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  Speaker 3: never going to be able to achieve anything. And yet
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  Speaker 3: he's going to prove those teaching that's wrong with a
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  Speaker 3: lot of children that are your I divergent, find all
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  Speaker 3: difficult and that the after get to a lot of
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  Speaker 3: the stories in the book because these one hundred people
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  Speaker 3: often also struggle during schooling as well.
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  Speaker 2: How important is representation do you think when you look
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  Speaker 2: at the people around you who have different diagnoses and
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  Speaker 2: challenges for them to be able to see these stories,
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  Speaker 2: what does that do for them?
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  Speaker 3: Well, it makes them feel that they're not alone firstly. Secondly,
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  Speaker 3: it gives them the feeling that everything will be okay.
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  Speaker 3: I might be having some challenges at the moment, but
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  Speaker 3: look at these people and what they were able to
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  Speaker 3: achieve in their lives. Maybe I'll be able to do
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  Speaker 3: something like that too. That's very important.
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  Speaker 2: The Rebel Girls books have absolutely blown up. They were
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  Speaker 2: worldwide phenomenons. They were so successful. What's the initial feedback
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  Speaker 2: being for Wonderfully Wired?
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  Speaker 3: Really? So far, it's been amazing. I've had really positive
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  Speaker 3: feedback from parents of being a divergent to children who
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  Speaker 3: said that they've been benefit from the book because it
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  Speaker 3: gave them a sense of hope and for their child. Also,
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  Speaker 3: our health professionals working with your divergent children have really
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  Speaker 3: joyed it. Teachers, schools so so far, very positive.
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  Speaker 2: Congratulations Stacy. Stacy Lucas is the author of the book
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  Speaker 2: Wonderfully Wired. It's basically brief bios of one hundred people
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  Speaker 2: from all around the world, males females, representation right across
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  Speaker 2: the board, and something that can give your kids hope
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  Speaker 2: even if things are hard right now, they don't necessarily
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  Speaker 2: have to stay hard for the rest of their lives.
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  Speaker 2: Stacy's so glad you jumped onto the podcast with me
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  Speaker 2: to share this today. Really really wish you the very
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  Speaker 2: best with wonderfully Wide. Hope it goes well for you.
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  Speaker 2: Thank you, justin thanks for having me on Absolute pleasure.
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  Speaker 2: Stacy Lucas is the author of Wonderfully Wired. We'll link
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  Speaker 2: to it in our show notes. You can google Amazon,
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  Speaker 2: whatever it is, go wherever you need to to buy
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  Speaker 2: the book. If you're dealing with any of those challenges
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  Speaker 2: that come with raising neurodivergent kids, I think that you're
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  Speaker 2: going to find it inspirational, hopeful, and provide the kids
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  Speaker 2: with a sense of representation that they can grow up
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  Speaker 2: to feel like life is worth living and make a
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  Speaker 2: contribution and do well, even if they're not feeling particularly
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  Speaker 2: competent right now. The Happy Family podcast is produced by
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  Speaker 2: Justin Roland for Bridge Media. Craig Bruce is our executive producer.
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  Speaker 2: For more information about making your family happy, I check
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  Speaker 2: the show notes for Wonderfully Wired, or visit us at
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  Speaker 2: happyfamilies dot com dot au